Behavioral Ecology

1. Behavioral Ecology • Behavioral ecology is the study of an animal’s behavior & how it is tied to its evolution, survival, and its reproductive success. • Behavior is everything an animal does and how it does it. • To study behavior, two basic types of questions are asked. • Proximate questions are often considered "How" questions. • environmental stimuli, trigger event, genetic, physiological, and anatomical mechanisms • Ultimate questions are often considered "Why" questions • asks the evolutionary significance of a behavior and how it inferred fitness

2. Ethology • Behavioral ecology can be further narrowed to the study of Ethology (organisms in their natural environments). • An ethologist will attempt to answer the following 4 questions without influencing the outcome. • What is the mechanistic basis of the behavior (chemical, anatomical, & physiological)- proximate • How does development of the animal influence behavior - proximate • What is the evolutionary history of the behavior - ultimate • How does the behavior contribute to an animal's fitness - ultimate

3. Behaviors studied by Ethologists • FAP (Fixed action Patterns) • a sequence of unearned behaviors that once triggered is carried to completion • example: Aggression in the male 3-spined stickleback • action: attacks another male in its breeding area • Proximate cause: red underbelly(trigger) • Ultimate cause: by chasing other males away the male will leave more offspring thereby having greater reproductive success

4. Behaviors studied by Ethologists • Imprinting • a behavior that includes both innate and learned components that once learned is irreversible • example: ducks following their mother • action: baby ducks will follow any real or surrogate mother that they imprint during the sensitive period (period of entrainment) • Proximate cause: during a critical period, young ducks see their mother moving away and calling • Ultimate cause: ducks that don't follow are not cared for and do not learn the necessary skills for survival

5. Behaviors studied by Ethologists • Nature vs Nurture • Genetic components - innate actions (nature) • types: • Directed movements • kinesis -a change in activity rate in response to a stimuli (non-directional) • taxis -movement toward (pos) or away (neg) from a stimulus • Migration- seasonal movement by a species • Signals(behavior causing change) and communication (signal and response) • chemical - pheromones • Auditory - bird songs, insect sounds from wings • Mating • Chemicals released during mating may help form a monogamous bond in species

6. Nature vs Nurture • Environmental Components (nurture) - may act to modify the genetic response • learning -modification of behavior based on specific circumstances • habituation- loss of responsiveness to stimuli that convey little or no information • Spatial learning - learning with some degree of spatial variance • Nesting sites, population density, hazards associated with food location, ... • may use land marks to form a cognitive map (use of multiple landmarks to identify location of food, home, mate) • associative learning - ability to associate one stimulus with another • may use classical conditioning - repetitive use of consequences / reward to reinforce an association • Operant conditioning – trial & error learning • cognition- the ability of an organism to perceive, store, process, and use information learned